Aurora Borealis

Leader John closely monitored weather and aurora forecasts to adjust the itinerary as needed so we'd be in the best possible locations for aurora. The official aurora forecast is at http://en.vedur.is/weather/forecasts/aurora.

The first night aurora was possible, we planned elaborately -- watch in shifts, sleep in clothes with equipment ready, know which room doors to bang on if/when the aurora was sighted. All that turned out to be unnecessary. One of the group poked their head outside around 9pm and saw something promising in the sky. Their camera test shot returned dazzling green waves.

Giddy excitement best describes our behavior for the next 2-3 hours. Both the cold and the need for sleep fell completely off our radar.

To the human eye the aurora looked like broad, translucent contrails; however, exposures of 10-30 seconds captured amazing green waves and even some red in between.

These images are from multiple locations on two consecutive nights. The aurora intensity forecast was about 4 on a scale of 0 to 9. Imagine what a high-intensity show would look like!